My legs crossed as I sat on one of the room’s sofas, I let out a sigh in my heart.

“Rest assured,” I said, “I do not have the hobby of ravaging children, nor the habit of consuming the flesh of sentient beings. At worst, I shall make you into servants.” Even I had a hard time identifying the children’s feelings.

“Oh my,” Charlotte said, “ ‘twas well w’thin my expect’tions that M’lord would both’r the waifs a little more…”

“I do not make a hobby out of bullying children, either, Charlotte. And to call them ‘waifs’ is… no, I suppose if they had parents, they would have objected…”

By the end of my sentence, my words were nothing but a mutter to myself, unheard by all but me. I shook my head, looked up once more, and noticed the Imp had timidly raised its hand.

“You. Speak.”

“Ah, uhm… Your Grace, may I… I have delivered your sacrifices, Your Grace, so would it be acceptable for me to take my leave…?”

I chuckled to myself and gestured to one of the maids. “Take him to the treasury. He can take a common-rank artifact.” The treasury likely had enough to fill several rooms, after all. One would not be missed in the slightest. “And you,” I said, addressing another maid. “Go fetch us some tea.”

“Then.” I leaned back and pointed at the girl. “Your name is Asami-” I shifted to point at the boy. “-and yours is Nexu. Correct?”

Both of the children nodded in response.

“And to summarise, your village was afraid I would go on a rampage in the area around Eskaria, so, being rather close to the border, they sent you two as a sacrifice in the hope that would cause me to spare them.”

In truth, this was not the first time I had been sent a gift as a request for mercy—though certainly, it was the first time the gift had come in the form of a live sacrifice.

“Then, a question,” I said, placing my tea on the table. “This village of yours—Dusthill, was it?—which goddess does it worship?”

Asami tilted her head in puzzled silence, but Nexu raised his hand.

“Speak.”

“There… isn’t really any kind of ‘everyone’ thing. Some people worship Lady Salamander, and some Lady Gnome… and a few people worship Lady Entropy, too.”

“I see. In that case, there is not any particular reason for me to destroy your village.”

That said, I would certainly like to destroy a village whose immediate solution is live sacrifices.

I decided to get something out of the way ahead of time. “Hold still.”

I appraised the children.

Name

Asami Dusthill

Sex

Female

Race

Beast-person, sheep-ram hybrid

Class

Sacrifice

Skills

Sacrifice

[Sacrificial Resolve] [Non-dangerous Presence]

Sacrificial Resolve

Passive: if you have a pure desire to offer yourself to a being stronger than you, you will find it easier to perform tasks you wish to perform for its sake and tasks it requests of you.

Non-dangerous Presence

Passive: others will subconsciously lower their evaluation of your combat ability. This skill does not work on those who are aware you possess it.

Other

[Mental Resistance]

Mental Resistance

Passive: due to certain past events, you possess a resistance to negative mind-affecting status effects. In addition, you are incapable of sustaining mental traumas, and negative events will not affect your mental state.

Unique Skills

[Mistress of the Cursed Arsenal] [Self-Teleport] [Clean Body]

Mistress of the Cursed Arsenal

Passive: while you are wielding at least five cursed items, of which at least two are weapons, your parameters will improve significantly and you will be able to communicate with the items. This skill does not grant you resistance to the items’ effects.

Self-Teleport

Teleport to the location of anyone who holds this skill.

Clean Body

Passive: no part of your body will ever dirty.

Name

Nexu Dusthill

Sex

Male

Race

Beast-person, fennec

Class

Sacrifice

Skills

Sacrifice

[Sacrificial Resolve] [Non-dangerous Presence]

Sacrificial Resolve

Passive: if you have a pure desire to offer yourself to a being stronger than you, you will find it easier to perform tasks you wish to perform for its sake and tasks it requests of you.

Non-dangerous Presence

Passive: other beings will subconsciously lower their evaluation of your combat ability. This skill does not work on beings who are aware you possess it.

Other

[Broken Mind]

Broken Mind

Passive: due to certain past events, you have become completely immune to mind-reading of any kind, and attempts to affect your mental state or influence your thoughts artificially will almost always fail. In addition, all events are unlikely to affect you mentally.

Unique Skills

[Wielder of a Massive Weapon] [Eyes of the Spiritseer] [Will of the Cursed Weapon]

Wielder of a Massive Weapon

Passive: while you are wielding a weapon which is at least your size, your physical parameters will increase drastically. In addition, if it is a cursed weapon, you will be able to communicate with it. This skill does not grant you resistance to the weapon’s effects.

Eyes of the Spiritseer

Passive: you are able to see spirits.

Will of the Cursed Weapon

Passive: while you are using a non-cursed weapon, it will wear and tear significantly faster than usual. However, cursed weapons will sustain no damage and remain as if you never used them. Additionally, you will gain some resistance to their effects.

Truly too bad. Although they possessed so many Unique Skills, essentially every last one of them was useless. After all, Unique Skills were called that precisely because only one person could hold them at a time—in other words, [Self-Teleport] was useless outside of extremely esoteric scenarios. Due to varying circumstances, such as the rarity of cursed weapons and the lack of ability to communicate with spirits even if one could see them, the same went for most of the other Unique Skills.

I sent Lady Entropy, who was sitting next to me, a copy of the statuses, and cleared my throat.

“Ah, uh, demon king,” Nexu said, tilting his head, “if you won’t destroy our village, does that mean…”

I could not tell if he feared for his life or a glimpse of hope had entered his lifeless eyes, but I shook my head. “I will not be letting you two go.”

“Huh?” Asami tilted her head the other way. “Why not?”

"You see, I am a very sinful person. And one of those sins is greed. I will never give away that which is mine, and I absolutely must have anything that catches my interest… And currently, you two fall into both categories."

“What will we be doing, then, mister demon king?”

“Let us see… Before that, a question.”

A question which was absolutely vital for my answer to her question.

“What do you two think of death?”

Asami tilted her head side to side as she thought of an answer, so Nexu answered first. “It’s… something that happens to people, and to animals. And I guess it’s a little sad, but there’s nothing we can do about it, right?”

“Ah,” Asami said, “I thought of something. Um… It’s sad when people die, and lots of people cry over it… but everyone’ll die someday.”

My answer was sealed, then. Incidentally, I had no plans to die at all, let alone on some indeterminate “someday”. If possible, I would extend the same boon to my close allies…

“M’lord?”

It seemed I had gotten lost in thought. I shook my head. “In that case,” I said, “I have decided on your fates.”

If they were already like this, it would be a waste not to put the children’s latent potential to use. If I wanted them as soldiers, it would be simple enough to send them to the Military Academy, but…

“You two will become my personal bodyguards.”

Charlotte choked on her tea, whereas Tempest spat it out entirely. A maid dutifully got to cleaning it up immediately, while another checked on Charlotte’s health.

“Body… guards?” Asami asked, tilting her head once more.

“Yes. In short, you will be in charge of my personal safety.”

“But… we can’t fight, demon king,” Nexu said, shaking his head.

“Not yet. My demons can teach you.”

“M… M’lord,” Charlotte said, steadying her breathing, “Sur’ly this cannot be the c’rrect course o’ act’on. If thou desireth a defend’r, sur’ly thou couldst employ an ex’sting soldier, like one o’ us Demon Gen’rals…”

“You each have your own duties,” I said, and I proceeded to borrow a [Telepathy] skill, targeting both Charlotte and Tempest. «It is more so that I can keep an eye on them. I do not intend to replace any of you.»

Charlotte looked more relieved than she reasonably should have, but I decided tactfully not to mention it, and shook my head.

“Now then, as the last subject we will handle in this room, I suppose you are not yet properly acquainted with my… companions. Care to guess at their identities?”

“Ah, yes yes, please let me try!” Asami said, raising her hand.

A certain dragon came to mind.

“Then, uh,” she said, pointing at Alpine, “is that your guard dog?” It was sitting in a way not dissimilar to a regular dog, and was munching on a bone it appeared to have received from one of the maids. It tilted its head as it was pointed at.

“In a way, you are close,” I said, “but no. Her name is Alpine, and she is closer to a pet dog than a guard dog. I would rather like to train her, as well, though…”

It stood up and gave me its usual, sloppy salute. I waved my hand dismissively and it returned its attention to the bone.

“Ah, okay. Uhm… The lady with the hat, is she the head of magical staff or something?”

How come you’re almost right on the mark again? That’s twice, now.

“Not quite… Tempest is the head of the Magical Research Division. In other words, the Chief Magical Researcher.”

She gave a light bow. Asami responded in turn, a little flustered. “I’m, uh, not sure about the pretty girl with the pale skin, but she’s probably a vampire… and then the lady sitting next to you…”

Finally, Nexu decided to speak up. “Maybe,” he said, “she’s the demon king’s bride?”

Lady Entropy let out a weird noise as she averted her eyes from me. It seemed she was suddenly very interested in the couch.

I casually dropped a hand on her head as I leaned back further, a coy smile on my face. “Well, I wonder,” I said, “but the important part is that this is goddess of darkness, Entropy, herself. Technically speaking, she is your new employer.”

“Astaroth’ll give, most of the orders, though.” She nodded and stealthily nuzzled her head into my hand.

“Now then,” I said, “hurry up and drink your tea. If you are to guard me, you must learn to fight, so we have somewhere to go.”

“Ah, yes!” Asami said, grabbing the cup she had only taken a few sips of. Forgotten it, it seemed.

“Right,” Nexu said, picking up the cup he hadn’t touched at all. Unnoticed, perhaps.

“M’lord,” Charlotte said, “if I may, what might be our dest’nation?”

“Where else but the treasury?”

The black doors, decorated with gold and likely made from Black Silver or some meticulously polished black stone, left me with a feeling somewhere between ‘pride’ and ‘speechlessness’ whenever I happened to go past them.

Now that I was standing in front of them, that feeling was amplified severalfold.

I once more ordered Alpine to stand by outside. As it was in possession of a bone, it was significantly less reluctant to follow the order this time. Then I made a gesture, and the Living Armours on either side of the pair of doors pushed them open. The treasury, filled with gold, silver, coins, weaponry, gemstones and whatever other riches one could come up with, looked significantly fuller than it had the last time I was here.

In addition, there were several doors leading into deeper parts.

“Was it this… full, last time? Or this messy?”

“I am afraid ‘tis a r’sult of the circ’mstances, M’lord. The shelves are simply full.”

Although Charlotte had joined us, Tempest had gone off to her tower to do who-knows-what. From what I could tell, the Imp was gone already.

“I see,” I said, nodding in vague satisfaction. I whipped my head around to look at the children, who were still entranced by the door. “What are you doing? We do not have forever.”

They rang out in assent and sprinted inside.

“So much gold,” Asami said, mouth agape as she looked around. She looked at a variety of objects up close, though she did not seem to think it appropriate to touch anything.

Nexu, too, examined various things from a small distance. He appeared more interested in gemstones than precious metals.

Neither Charlotte nor Lady Entropy seemed particularly impressed. Given this was one’s domain, and the other was a goddess, this seemed fair.

“I do not mind if you get entranced by my riches,” I said, a sly smirk on my face, “but we should get going. Follow me.”

As we walked through several rooms, each as packed as the last, I momentarily paused to look at a nostalgic pair of golden gauntlets. I shook my head and kept going, and eventually stopped in front of a wall.

“... M’lord?” Charlotte asked, narrowing her eyes in doubt. “Is this not s’mply a wall?”

“Are you sure, Astaroth?” Lady Entropy asked, canting her head adorably to the side. She seemed to know my plan.

“Of course, Lady Entropy. You saw their skills too, no?”

I raised my hand forward and cast a quick [No-Attribute Magic] spell—

And the wall vanished.

Practically by reflex, I used [True Demon Form] on my right hand and held it up in front of my face. The next moment, it was impacted by a sword.

“Stand down.”

I could sense both realisation and regret from the sword, and it quickly removed itself from my arm and returned to its place in the weapon rack, located in the hidden room behind the wall.

“... M’lord?” Charlotte asked again, still dubious.

The children simply stared at the place the sword had been—my arm—appearing entirely flabbergasted.

Lady Entropy, of course, watched the whole thing with full composure.

“All members,” I said, turning my back to the hidden room, “present.”

As I spread my arms to the side, the various types of arms in the room, ranging from swords to halberds to bows, arranged themselves neatly behind me, all floating in the air. Also present were at least three full sets of armour, none of which looked particularly noble, and a multitude of miscellaneous accessories, like bracelets, hairclips, necklaces, earrings and the like.

“I hereby introduce you to the Cursed Arsenal.”

Judging from Charlotte’s expression, I was surely making that grin only a true villain could.